farevsflameWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: fare is a noun, flame is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fare” is a noun and “flame” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#45,039
“fare” frequency rank
#44,462
“flame” frequency rank
89501
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fare flame
Definition Pêche solennelle que les pêcheurs faisaient pour leur fête, vers le mois de mai, et qui fut interdite en 1670, parce qu’elle dépeuplait les rivières. Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe flamer.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set fare and flame apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
fare
5 ch
flame

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fare is \faʁ\ while flame is \flam\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 89501, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fare is recorded at frequency rank #45,039, classified as anoun, pronounced \faʁ\. flame is at rank #44,462, tagged as averb, pronounced \flam\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 89501, this pair ranks #5,720 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fare vs flame

Shared letters: aef. Private to "fare": r. Private to "flame": lm.

"fare" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "flame" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fareafre · farre · ffare · frae
  • flamefalme · fflame · flaem · fllame · flmae · lfame

Frequency comparison

fare#45,039
flame#44,462

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fare" and "flame" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fare" is a noun and "flame" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "fare" or "flame"?
"flame" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #44,462 in our French list, against #45,039 for "fare". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering fare vs flame

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “fare”; for a verb, it's “flame”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “fare” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list